Blech....Hershey park makes me want to If you want a REAL PA amusement park experience just go a LITTLE ways past the heart of coal country...stop by the LL factory on your way to Knoebels ....now THAT place makes me want to THAT'S a real park. If you want to travel back in time...in a good way check that place out...Elysburg, PA. Free entry...reasonably priced, GOOD, food. The best d@mm bumper cars on the planet and some serious wooden coasters.

When I say I'm going to be at Hershey.... think 10,000 automobile related garage sales... This is the AACA's [antique automobile club of America's] national meet,, and the worlds largest automoblile swap meet... lasts 4-5 days, and I still can't see all of it...

Kiddy rides and Roller coasters??? Oh,,,yah they are somewhere around there., If I look up from the car parts on the table and ground..

How about adding a coal related flea market at the meet and great? I'm thinking something like tailgating, just meet in a parking lot and we walk around looking in the trunks or pickup beds. I'm sure many of us has coal stuff we don't need and would love to sell or trade. Stove parts, plumbing supplies, bags of coal, etc. What do you think? Maybe a portion of sales goes to Richard to support this site.

coal berner wrote:Well I will stick with the 24th of October because it is My B-day and I will not be around on the 10th or the 11th so if it goes to that weekend someone else will have to take over the meet & greet / getting coal and all of the other Planning & time that goes along with it Anyone is more then welcome to take it over If it Falls on the 10th or 11th

I believe we are running this by majority rules, so now is the time for getting a little more organized and since our friend coal berner cannot make the 10th we will need to find out what folks are interested in and make up a tentative itinerary. There are some options posted by coal berner and others on this thread and other related threads, I was thinking that staying in and around Knoebles would make a nice base for the run to Superior (or breaker of your choice) to get coal, coal item flea market, family fun and lodging either by tent or cabin, plus there are hotels in the area. The pioneer Tunnel mine is nearby ( http://www.pioneertunnel.com/home.shtml ), the number 9 ( http://no9mine.tripod.com/ ) is about 45 minutes to an hour away (we did have an offer of a special tour and cookout from Mike, so I will call him and see if that still stands). Rather than try and organize this by people ending PMs I was thinking (and you know what that gets you! ). that we should have some discussion on here and air out the ideas and that way we can get a feel for the druthers of the majority (hopefully there will be one!).

Those that can could meet at Knoebles Friday. There is camping and cabins, and I'm sure some folks out there can recommend hotels in the area. We could make a run to the breaker on Friday for the early crowd, and make arrangements to do another run early Saturday (providing the breaker will be open) morning as well. Then Saturday take either of the mine tours and perhaps take in the Yuengling brewery tour ( http://www.yuengling.com/index.htmThis link is broken, either the page no longer exists or there is some other issue like a typo. ). With Knoebles as the base those with families can decide what they want to do and have built in entertainment if they decide to stay behind for any of the activities. Plus we can set have the ad hoc flea market, anyone that brings anything to sell will have access at a central point to the people attending.

Please excuse my ramblings, I have not taken the time to put together too many cohesive thoughts and don't see that changing in the near future. The main thing is lets get this discussion moving and see what we are up against.